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equal share. MEPHISTOPHELES First range in order, Hall on hall, These wares so costly, One and all! And when he steps The prize to view, And reckons all With judgment true, He'll be no niggard; As is meet, Feast after feast He'll give the fleet, The gay birds come with morning tide; Myself for them can best provide. [_The cargo is removed._] MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST) With gloomy look, with earnest brow Thy fortune high receivest thou. Thy lofty wisdom has been crowned; Their limits shore and sea have bound; Forth from the shore, in swift career, O'er the glad waves, thy vessels steer; Speak only from thy pride of place, Thine arm the whole world doth embrace. Here it began; on this spot stood The first rude cabin formed of wood; A little ditch was sunk of yore Where plashes now the busy oar. Thy lofty thought, thy people's hand, Have won the prize from sea and land. From here too-- FAUST That accursed here! It weighs upon me! Lend thine ear;-- To thine experience I must tell, With thrust on thrust, what wounds my heart; To bear it is impossible-- Nor can I, without shame, impart: The old folk there above must yield; Would that my seat those lindens were; Those few trees not mine own, that field, Possession of the world impair. There I, wide view o'er all to take, From bough to bough would scaffolds raise; Would, for the prospect, vistas make On all that I have done to gaze; To see at once before me brought The master-work of human thought, Where wisdom hath achieved the plan, And won broad dwelling-place for man.-- Thus are we tortured;--in our weal, That which we lack, we sorely feel! The chime, the scent of linden-bloom, Surround me like a vaulted tomb. The will that nothing could withstand, Is broken here upon the sand: How from the vexing thought be safe? The bell is pealing, and I chafe! MEPHISTOPHELES Such spiteful chance, 'tis natural, Must thy existence fill with gall. Who doubts it! To each noble ear, This clanging odious must appear; This cursed ding-dong, booming loud, The cheerful evening-sky doth shroud, With each event of life it blends, From birth to burial it attends, Until this mortal life doth seem, Twixt ding and dong, a vanished dream! FAUST Resistance, stubborn selfishness, Can trouble lordliest success, Till, in deep angry pain one must Grow tired at last of being first! MEPHISTOPHELES Why let
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